The Ohio House on Wednesday approved legislation to make the state’s anti-abortion laws the strictest in the country, putting the Senate on the spot.
By a vote of 55-40, the “heartbeat bill,” House Bill 69, cleared the full House. Previous attempts to pass the legislation in both the House and Senate have failed.
Introduced by Republican Reps. Christina Hagan of Alliance and Ron Hood of Ashville, the bill would ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected — as early as six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy and, in some cases, before the woman knows she’s pregnant.
Violating the ban would be a fifth-degree felony for the physician who performed the abortion, punishable by up to 12 months in prison and a fine of up to $2,500.
The bill exempts physicians who perform abortions to “prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman,” which must then be documented.
It does not include an exception for cases of rape or incest.
Hagan, in urging support of the bill, said it was an effort to extend protections to the unborn that she likened to civil rights struggles throughout history.
“Now we stand here today in this House with the opportunity to be bearers of this torch,” Hagan said. “The question will be which side were you on when the history was written.”
House Democrats argued a host of reasons that the bill should not be passed:
- It amounts to an abuse of power for the government to tell a woman what she must do with her body.
- It ignores the pain and suffering a woman endures from the trauma of rape.
- It ignores differences in religious beliefs on when life begins.
- It violates the Ohio Constitution because it involves the state interfering with health care decisions.
- It violates the U.S. Constitution and thus support by lawmakers would be in violation of their oaths of office to uphold the constitution.
- It will not stop abortion, but only make it more dangerous for women who get them in Ohio.
In the end, all attempts to amend the bill were defeated and it was approved mainly along party lines.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where it remains to be seen if it can win approval.
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